Saturday, October 30th, 2010

By Ashley Padgett

Whit said that fasting is “denying something the body enjoys in order to concentrate on something spiritual, like our relationship with God.”

I once decided to have a week long fast from Facebook, a website that I use to keep in touch with my friends. I realized that Facebook was becoming so important and time-consuming that my one-on-one time with God was getting shorter and shorter. I don’t think that Facebook is a bad thing (if your parents give you permission to use it!). For me, it’s a great way to keep in touch with the friends and family that I don’t get to see very often. But it was still making me forget to spend time with God. When I realized how sad it must have made God that I didn’t spend time with Him, I decided to log off of Facebook for a week, and use the time that I would be “Facebooking” to pray, read my Bible, or play with my younger brothers and sister.
At first it was hard! I felt a lot like Wooton and Matthew. Every time I’d start feeling bored, I’d want to log on and see what all my friends were saying. But as the week went on, I found myself enjoying the extra time with God and my family more and more. After the week was done, I was able to bring Facebook back into my daily routine without letting it take over all my free time.

Like the folks at Whit’s End learned, there are many things that I could fast in order to grow closer to God. Maybe you could fast desserts…I bet that would make your mom happy! Or how about a favorite TV show? Then you could set aside that half hour to spend with God.

How about fasting the snooze alarm? It’s easy to hit the snooze button and wait an extra ten minutes before getting up. But what if instead of using those ten minutes to lay in bed, you used that time to pray or read your Bible? There are lots of things that you could fast, and it’s different for each person.

Have you ever fasted something before? What did God teach you through that? If you do fast, be sure to post here and let us know what you learned!

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

By Bethany Brown

Fear

When I left home for college, I was scared of everything. If you’ve ever had a first day of school, you probably know what I was feeling. Everything was new and different from home and I had to meet all new people. I worried that they wouldn’t like me and that I wouldn’t have any friends. I worried about how I was going to find all my classrooms and how to use the library, and where the financial aid office was so I could go get my first paycheck from my work-study job.

In fact, I was so scared of some of these things that I spent most of my spare time in my room. I always went to eat with my roommate so that I wouldn’t have to eat alone. The day before classes, I went to find and double-find all of my classrooms. I waited for weeks to go get my first paycheck until I could find someone to go with me so I could find the right office.

Sometimes fear can be a good thing. Just like pain warns us not to keep touching a hot stove, fear can keep us safe from things that are dangerous—like walking too close to a busy highway or the edge of a big cliff. In my case, my fears pushed me to be really prepared for class by knowing where I was going ahead of time. And it pushed me to be extra friendly when I met people in hopes of making friends.

In other cases, fear can hurt us. I stayed in my room and even avoided getting my first paycheck at college. In “Stage Fright,” the play was stopped completely because the whole cast quit out of fear. They were so afraid of what might be happening that they would never have known what was really happening if not for Emily and Matthew’s investigation.

Like the cast of the play, I eventually faced my fear. I learned to meet people and do the normal things of college life in spite of the fear I felt. A big thing that helped me was memorizing Bible verses about fear. One of my favorites is Isaiah 41:13. It says, “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.” I could always repeat that verse when I was afraid, to remind me of God’s protection.

Do you have any favorite verses that you remember when you are afraid? Feel free to share them in the comments below, and then pick a new one someone else has shared to learn for the next time you are afraid!

By Ashley Padgett

“That’s an hour and a half of my life I will never get back.” My sister Emmy has often made this remark after watching a movie that she found especially pointless. In most cases, she’s joking, but it does get me thinking. How many hours do I spend with my attention held captive by a video game, a TV show, or a movie? And how often do I actually learn any lesson from it? How often is there a point in my entertainment? Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.” So how can we do that when the Thug Clotgrippers of the world are trying to make everything point free?

What if we could make some of that pointless entertainment actually have a point? Why is it that I’ve heard my sister say that line so may times? It’s because I’m usually sitting right next to her as she’s watching these pointless movies! Because we’re spending time together, we’ve taken what could be a complete waste of time and turned it into sister time together! Though the movies may not have a point, our time together has been meaningful to me. We’ve found a point within the pointlessness.

Besides Adventures in Odyssey (which is your favorite entertainment, right?!), what is some of your favorite TV shows and movies? Do they have a point? What are some good alternatives to mindless entertainment? What are some points you can take from pointless entertainment? Post some of your ideas here!

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

After you’ve heard “The Mystery of the Clock Tower Parts 1 & 2,” check out this devotional thought. (If you haven’t heard the episode, check out the Media Player. You can also find a station in your area.)

Sweeping

By Ashley Padgett

Last summer, I worked at a camp for a few months. It was a lot of fun, but there were certainly a lot of long and tiring days for those of us on staff.
One day, my friend Brittany was sweeping the kitchen before we left for the day, and I noticed that she didn’t have a dustpan. I went and grabbed one and held it as she swept. I probably would have never thought about it again, except that Brittany mentioned it to me several days later. She said that day was an especially hard one for her. Everything had been going wrong and she was on the brink of tears all day. As she was sweeping, all she could think about was how bad that day was going. But then, when I got the dustpan for her, she said it really picked her up to know that someone cared. It made her whole day better.

I never would have guessed that such a simple act could change someone’s whole day!

We saw something similar in “The Mystery of the Clock Tower,” where Alicia’s small act of anger changed everything for her sister. Eugene told Matthew, “if you take one action, than another action is likely to follow.” We have to be careful with our decisions, because sometimes our actions will cause hurt for others. But we also should be on the lookout for ways we can affect people in good ways! With my friend Brittany, I gave her a smile and helped her (cause) so she felt better about herself and her day (effect).

What are some ways you’ve seen Cause and Effect in your own life? What are some ways that you’ve been a good “cause” in someone’s life? How have you seen the “effects”? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

Marianne Hering

Author Marianne Hering talks about the Imagination Station books and shares stories from editing the Official Guide. Hear Bob and Jesse share previews of this weekend’s show “Stage Fright” and a special online feature called a Clickbook.